Lawrence Spivac, the original host of “Meet the Press,” through the later Tim Russert’s years as moderator would roll over in their graves to hear the latest news of the Sunday program’s demise in the ratings.
The decades-old Sunday standard has fallen on hard times, and that is a mild way of putting it. It was reported Wednesday that last week it suffered its worst ratings in nearly two decades. The latest moderator, ultra-liberal David Gregory suffered an embarrassing third-place ratings finish for the third straight week, according to the website Mediaite.
The lowest third-place finish of the three as “Meet the Press” continues to lose thousands of viewers a week and slide into the ratings abyss.
“Meet the Press” is the longest-running program on network television.
The long-running news program suffered an overall rating that hit a 21-year low, finishing behind CBS’s “Face the Nation” with veteran correspondent Bob Schieffer, and ABC’s “This Week” with former Clinton White House aide, George Stephanopoulos , on each of the last three Sundays.
“Fox News Sunday” on the Fox News Channel cable (Chris Wallace) is the clear leader of the four Sunday programs in the ratings race.
CNN's numbers have fallen so dramatically that they make "meet the Press" look like fabulous numbers.
Nielsen estimates the total viewing audience for “Meet the Press” at 2.913 million with only 854,000 in the all-important demographic of 25 to 54, the show’s worst performance in 18 years for that demographic, Mediaite reports.
Liberal host David Gregory took the moderator’s chair in December, 2008 following the death of popular host Tim Russert.
It appears that Gregory may be on the verge of joining the former “This Week” hostess, Christine Amanpour, whose stuffy personality and ratings disaster forced her out two years ago in favor of Stephanopoulos.
Greg Gutfield of Fox’s “The Five” described David Gregory’s “Meet the Press” as “the Sunday show for people who eat Kale,” Mediaite adds.
That is putting salt in open wounds.
Ouch.
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